1. Field Of The Invention
The invention relates to a garment fitting snugly to a body, in particular a bathing suit having a front section, a back section, a crotch section and at least one suspender section, the front section and the back section being circularly knitted in a substantially hose-like fashion from elastic yarn which over the extend of the garment is knitted at different tension and/or mesh size so that the garment follows the contour of the body, the elastic yarn in each row consisting of an elastic core yarn and at least one surface yarn covering
2. The Prior Art
As a rule, in garments, particularly in bathing suits which are to fit snugly to the body of their wearer, front and back sections are made of two parts which are sewn together at their side. Openings at least in the region of the upper thighs or hips and at shoulder sections are fabricated manually. Such a design suffers from the disadvantage of being very labor intensive because front and back sections have first to be cut and sewn together so as to conform to a body and before they are sewn together. The seems are bothersome and impede an optimal fit of the garment on the body. Finally, the desired snug fit of the garment to a body and its elasticity are not always ensure because of the hitherto used yarns and because the cloth is usually stretched on a frame and subjected to a heat-treatment whereby the memory of the cloth and of the garment made with it are reduced.
A garment of the kind mentioned in the introduction is also known from EP-A1-0,599,266, which may also be used as underwear and which is provided with long sleeves, the garment being provided with zones of different knits and stretch properties in its sleeves as well as in the waist and chest zones, in order to provide improved conformity to a body. Moreover, it is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,425,246 to manufacture, for instance, of one-piece circularly knitted bathing suits, stockings, brassieres and the like with different mesh structures varying the size of the meshes in certain zones, using covered spandex yarns on circular knitting machines, for the accommodating body curves.